Dirtgate and the Cards v. Lefties

I still believe this is much ado about little, because good lefthanded pitchers such as Rogers give the Cardinals fits, and they didn’t hit Rogers even after Rogers came clean (sort of).

I remember being struck by how bad t. Louis hitters faired against Mets lefties during the LCS. I don’t want to take anything away from Oliver Perez’s gutsy performance, but I think that simply throwing from the left side helped his performance tremendously.

You wouldn’t think it with all of those righties in that lineup, Pujols, Rolen, Encarnacion. I’d have to see stats, but my memory was that Edmonds–the lefty–didn’t even fair as badly as some of his right handed teammates. Wonder why that is?

It was the cardinals role players and lesser sticks that did the Mets in. Spezio, Taguchi, and Molina really made the difference. That is why I still like the Cardinals in 6. Once they get back to St. Louis and get to play with real baseball rules LaRussa’s ability to mix and match his lineup — not because of his brilliance but because Walt Jocketty put together such a deep roster — will help them easily take 2 of 3 from the Tigers at home.

Leyland is going to have trouble when he has to decide whether or not to bring in Zumaya to pitch out of a 2-out jam in the 7th, knowing that his spot in the lineup is due up the next inning and they’ll need to pinch hit for him.

If I am right, it should be an interesting game 6 with Rogers heading back to the hill with his team down 3-2 and all of the world looking for a smudge on his palm.